Money Managers Love These 4 Outperforming Auto Companies

Do you feel there is opportunity in the auto market but don't know where to being your search? For ideas, we ran a screen to find automobile stocks currently in favor by hedge fund managers that have shown impressive performance in the market.

To create our list we began by screening the automobile industry for stocks rallying above their 20-day, 50-day, and 200-day moving averages, indicating that these stocks have strong upward momentum.

We then screened for those with bullish sentiment from institutional investors, with significant net institutional purchases over the last quarter representing at least 5% of share float. This indicates that institutional investors such as hedge fund managers and mutual fund managers expect these names to outperform into the future.

For an interactive version of this chart, click on the image below. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.

Do you think hedge funds are calling it right on these names? Use this list as a starting point for your own analysis.

List sorted by net institutional purchases as a percent of share float.

Net institutional purchases in the current quarter at 8.3M shares, which represents about 10.93% of the company's float of 75.97M shares. The stock is currently trading 9.28% above its 20-day moving average, 13.84% above its 50-day moving average, and 8.8% above its 200-day moving average.

2. Dorman Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:DORM): Supplies original equipment dealer automotive replacement parts, and fasteners and service line products primarily for the automotive aftermarket. Market cap at $1.23B, most recent closing price at $33.74.

Net institutional purchases in the current quarter at 930.4K shares, which represents about 5.64% of the company's float of 16.51M shares. The stock is currently trading 4% above its 20-day moving average, 7.66% above its 50-day moving average, and 26.86% above its 200-day moving average.

3. Lithia Motors Inc. (NYSE:LAD): Operates as an automotive franchisee and retailer of new and used vehicles. Market cap at $870.49M, most recent closing price at $34.07.

Net institutional purchases in the current quarter at 1.0M shares, which represents about 5.49% of the company's float of 18.20M shares. The stock is currently trading 4.04% above its 20-day moving average, 2.73% above its 50-day moving average, and 25.83% above its 200-day moving average.

Net institutional purchases in the current quarter at 2.4M shares, which represents about 5.13% of the company's float of 46.79M shares. The stock is currently trading 1.51% above its 20-day moving average, 6.38% above its 50-day moving average, and 11.22% above its 200-day moving average.

*Institutional data sourced from Fidelity, all other data sourced from Finviz.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

Business relationship disclosure: Business relationship disclosure: Kapitall is a team of analysts. This article was written by Sabina Bhatia, one of our writers. We did not receive compensation for this article (other than from Seeking Alpha), and we have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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